Thought Leaders

Stephen Northcutt presents in depth interviews with the thought leaders in information security and IT. For every novel security product, there is a thought leader, a man or woman of vision that sees the need and guides the creation of the security product. If there is someone missing whose voice you feel should be heard, drop me a note, stephen@sans.edu.

Quick links to STI Leadership Laboratory

Thought Leadership Essay

Leadership development begins with the simple realization that you want to be a leader. Life has many opportunities to press forward and take charge of a situation, or conversely, to shrink into the background. This is why we ask prospective students to write an essay about demonstrated leadership when they apply to our college, The SANS Technology Institute.

What does leadership mean, how do you know if you are qualified to lead, how do you measure leadership? One approach is through management and leadership competencies. We define competencies as measurable skills, knowledge, and abilities that identify successful managers. Comptencies are the tools that make management possible. They are covered in our leadership course, SANS Management 421, Management and Leadership Competencies. Some of the competencies that you will be taught include:

Team Development

Relationship Building

Conflict Resolution

Importance of Communication

Self-Direction

Coaching and Training

Leader Qualities

Vision Development

Employee Involvement

Change Management

Motivation of employees and team mates

Leadership Development

Leading Tribes

Brainstorming

Leading Change

What is the difference between a manager and a leader? A successful leader needs all of the same competencies as a manager, but some of the competencies must be more developed. For instance vision. You can manage with a minimal capability for vision and that is even something Human Resources may look for in an industry that is based on repeatable tasks. However, you cannot lead without vision. In addition you must have power beyond your positional power, the authority that comes with your role or job description. For many people is security, this might be something called referential power, based on your knowledge of technical security. For others, it might be something called personal power, people will want to work with you because they feel that you have both programmatic skills and a strong understanding of technical issues. They will look for you to be a bridge between management and technical groups in your organization. We try to teach this balance in Management 512, SANS Security Leadership Essentials.Different groups, industrys or situations might call for additional or different competencies. Some of these might include: